The Southern Gothic

• relies on supernatural, ironic or unusual events 
• uses these tools to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the south
• usually avoids antebellum stereotypes such as the contented slave, the demure Southern belle, the chivalrous gentleman and the righteous Christian preacher
• instead, the writer takes these archetypes and portrays them in a modern and realistic manner
• one notable feature is the grotesque, a stock character who possesses cringe-inducing qualities such as bigotry and self-righteousness
• Tennessee Williams described the Southern Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience."
• writers include:
• Flannery O'Connor
• Carson McCullers
• Eudora Welty
• John Kennedy Toole
• Tennessee Williams